The Forty-Ninth and Other Parallels: Contemporary Canadian Perspectives

The Forty-Ninth and Other Parallels: Contemporary Canadian Perspectives

Excerpt

The world's longest undefended border -- five thousand miles of it -- separates Canada from the United States and acknowledges two distinct nations that divide between themselves virtually an entire continent.

Proximity to the United States has been a constant factor in Canada's political, economic, and cultural development. To the Canadian, the United States has a powerful continental presence, friendly and supportive, but also threatening and ominous.

In his 1960 collection of essays, A Voice from the Attic, Robertson Davies described his country as an attic. Two decades later, Mordecai Richler moved on from this image: "This country, 116 years old but still blurry, is like a child's kaleidoscope that remains in urgent need of one more sharp twist of the barrel to bring everything into sharp focus. Making us whole. Something more than this continent's attic."

According to Margaret Atwood, Canada stands in marked contrast to the United States:

Canada sees itself as part of the world; a small sinking Titanic squashed between two icebergs, perhaps, but still inevitably a part. The States, on the other hand, has always had a little trouble with games like chess. Situational strategy is difficult if all you can see is . . .